Bitcoin is Bigger Than The Renaissance

Why The Father of Venture Capital Says Bitcoin is bigger than Tesla, Skype and Hotmail Combinedwelcome to the future“This is bigger than the internet, Iron Age, Renaissance, Industrial Revolution. This affects the entire world and it’s going to be affected in a more prevalent way than you could ever imagine”— Tim Draper, Legendary VC

In 2015, when Bitcoin was at $300, Tim Draper predicted $10,000 Bitcoin, a mark he missed by about 3 weeks. Not bad, eh? He’s predicting $250,000 in 2022.

As a millennial, I left college thankfully without any debt, but my girlfriend of 10 years wasn’t as lucky, and coming from finance, I saw the hypocrisy that someone should be laden with debt for choosing to educate themselves, whereas institutions that are able to capsize the economy can cancel their debts any time they see fit. Heads up, I win; tails, you lose. That, in a sentence, seems to summarize my understanding of the current financial markets. Make sense? It sure doesn’t to me.

Our financial system needs an upgrade.

It has evolved from seashells, to gold and silver-backed currency to pure fiat. When I hear Warren Buffet and Bill Gates scoffing at Bitcoin because it’s backed by nothing, I cough up my Cheerios, because guess what? Fiat is also backed by nothing. The Federal Reserve can print fiat currency at will. Wars have been fought over its right to do so, as a private enterprise. Printing is at their discretion. In other words, its supply is unlimited, so it’s worth must be zero. That’s what we were all taught in economics. Scarcity drives value. Bitcoin, for example, has a limited supply, requires work to “produce” and, ipso facto, has value in its scarcity.

Bitcoin is country neutral, unimpeded by Trump walls or Brexits, which are driven by ego and power-hungry individuals who care little for our ability to live a free life. The will of the few driving the lives of the masses is not a sustainable business model. Bitcoin ends that. Maybe not right now, but it will. If you look beyond the end of your nose it’s not that hard to see.

The next issue is: are we in a bubble? Well, was the internet a bubble to you? How are you reading this article? Bitcoin is internet v3.0, and it will not only revolutionize money, but also revolutionize the transmission of value online as we know it. The arguments around scaling and transaction fees are relatively myopic as the network has shown time and time again — scaling solutions will be adopted, and quickly. Some of the best developers in the world are looking to build an open world, and have strong financial incentives aligned with that goal.

Often time the arguments against cryptoassets are that they are a passing fad, and Bitcoin has problems limiting adoption. Both of these are short-sited outside of historical context.

Here’s some food for thought on short-termist arguments from our world’s history:

A rocket will never be able to leave the earth’s atmosphere — NY Times 1936

When the Paris Exhibition of 1876 closes, electric light will close with it and no more will be heard of it — Oxford Professor

Wireless music box has no value whatsoever — Associates of David Sernoff responding to an investment in radio

The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novely, a fad — President of Michigan Savings Bank, 1920s

Anything that can be invented has been invited — Head of Patent Office, 1939

Beyond remittances and money use cases, Bitcoin represents a transition to a phase of digital assets. A world where your online real estate will carry as much weight to you, financially and socially, as your brick and mortar home. With the invention of ERC721, or non-fungible tokens, digital collectibles, we will be able to own cryptoassets, potentially including Bitcoin if we allow for colored coins, coins that carry more information that just a price or transactional data. These assets could represent a real world asset, like a diamond for example, or a voting right in an online community.

I think this is very exciting, and am working with some of the best companies in the world to pioneer our digital future, our digital Renaissance.